In recent years, as the interest in stereoscopic image services increases, devices for providing a stereoscopic image continue to be developed. Among the methods for implementing such a stereoscopic image, there is a stereoscopic method, a volumetric method, a holographic method.
The basic principle of a stereoscopic method relates to a scheme for providing images, which are disposed perpendicular to each other, to the left and right eyes of a viewer in a separate manner, and the visual cortex in the brain of the viewer may interpret such two images as being combined to form a three-dimensional or stereoscopic image. In this instance, the images arranged to be perpendicular to each other become a left view image and a right view image, respectively.
Recent 3D cameras are constructed to capture (photography, take) a left view image and a right view image simultaneously through one device. For example, the stereoscopic scheme using two cameras which are the same as each other is widely used. For the stereoscopic scheme, two cameras are arranged with a predetermined gap (baseline) so as to acquire left-view and right-view images using the two completely independent cameras (two lenses, two sensors, two ISPs).
However, the stereoscopic-type 3D camera causes a quality-related problem due to an assembly error between the two cameras, which results in lowering 3D quality and thereby requiring for a highly-precise assembly process and bringing about a yield loss. Also, a 3D depth measurement range is decided by the baseline as the gap between the two fixed cameras. In addition, for a 3D zoom-lens, even though the two cameras are initially well aligned with each other, an error between the two cameras is generated due to a zooming operation, which degrades image quality and thereby causes user's fatigue.
Therefore, a method and apparatus for effectively solving those problems in the 3D camera may be taken into account.